Music videos are known to feature typical conventions that are shared throughout all genres. Whilst rock songs do resort to incorporating these conventions in music videos, they also try achieve a "dangerous" and "edgy" look, accomplished through the mise-en-scene and editing.
TYPICAL conventions:
- Close-up of the artist
- Artist appears- Artist performs the song (e.g: 0:44 - 0:47 of the song)
Rock songs, although going for an edgier and darker look in music videos than other music genres, still feature typical conventions that appear in all conventional music videos, regardless of genre. Examples of this includes a close-up (seen in the first image for "Living Dead Girl" in this post; being to help the audience to get a close look of the performer's face, so that the audience are more aware of who is singing the song), the artist performing (seen when Rob Zombie is portraying the "Evil Doctor" from 0:44-0:47; the purpose of this being that the audience knows who is responsible for performing the song) and the artist appearing (seen on numerous occasions throughout the song whenever Zombie is portraying the "Evil Doctor"; the general purpose of this being to intrigue the audience, as they would find watching the artist perform throughout the entire music video to become quite dull and tedious, which is why Rob used a gimmicky character in this song).
- Dark colours (because rock songs are intended to be the opposite of pop songs, so where pop music videos mostly use bright, vibrant colours, rock music videos will use dark and "dangerous" colours).
- Eerie mise-en-scene (an eerie mise-en-scene is advised for a rock music video, because it will have a dangerous look, and rock songs like to flaunt danger through the song's lyrics and/or what is featured in the music video)- Uneasy camera movements (seen throughout the entire video) (similarly to the eerie mise-en-scene, uneasy camera movements help to achieve an edgy and dangerous look, which is what appeals to fans who like rock songs).
What is vital to a rock music video is accomplishing a look that is considered to be dark and dangerous enough to frighten away "tween" girls that are appealed to vibrant pop songs. "Living Dead Girl" is a great example of this, as the colours are very dark, and an eerie look is achieved through the camerawork (uneasy camera movements), mise-en-scene (the performance of the people in the song, as well as the make-up and the dark clothing) and editing (the dark coloured filters added into the song).
